About Alfred A. Hart

Alfred Hart was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1816. Hart initially worked as a portrait painter before he moved to California in 1863 to work as a photographer. By 1864, he was the official photographer for the Central Pacific Railroad. As the railroad's photographer, Hart could pause railroad construction to pose the railroad workers or even stop trains at photo opportunities. He published 364 images as the Central Pacific Railroad photographer between 1864 and 1869. Eventually, Charles E. Leonard of the publishing company Horton & Leonard published a book of Hart's Central Pacific photos in 1870, titled "The Traveler's Own Book." In spite of Hart's publishing success, Central Pacific director Collis Huntington hired a new railroad photographer in 1870 and Hart traveled east to offer his services as a photographer for both the Nevada and Utah Railroad and the Pullman Company. Hart did not publish a photo after he left the Central Pacific Railroad. Throughout the 1870s, Hart traveled the country before settling in New York in 1881. While he filed multiple patents for new photographic devices, Hart's inventions never made him much money. He lived in relative poverty in New York City before he returned to California in 1906. He died on March 5, 1908 in Alameda County Infirmary. While Hart is primarily remembered for his brief period as a railroad photographer, he always considered himself an artist.

About Hart's Camera

Hart used a Steno wet-plate camera, an American-made camera that was commonly used in the 1860s. Wet plate cameras required mixing collodion, a thick liquid made of dissolved nitrated cotton in alcohol, with light-sensitive salts on a pane of glass. Once the alcohol in the collodion evaporated, one placed the glass in silver nitrate to form a light sensitive compound silver iodide on the glass surface, but the pane of glass had to be exposed in the camera before the collodion dried. This process meant Hart had to act quickly, especially as he frequently took several shots of the same place within minutes of each other. His photo pack likely weighed about eighteen pounds, with his tripod making up much of that weight. His cumbersome tripod did not allow the camera to tip or turn, and it could not be adjusted much for height. Hart often chose dangerous spots to take his photos, from precarious cliffs to the top of railroad cars.

About Jesse White

Jesse White is a professional photographer working out of Sacramento and Los Angeles Ca. He is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College, and has spent the last fifteen years working both as an IASTE member in the film industry as well as a private photographer. He is using a digital 35mm camera with lenses of equivalent focal length to that which Hart used. Complete modern replication of the Hart collection is anticipated in the spring of 2010.

Project Progress

The Alfred A. Hart Photo Project is in progress and we hope to post a new set of repeat photography pairs on the first of each month. Please check back regularly to explore the additions to the collection.

Much of the content of this site and analysis of the Hart photos comes from Richard White, the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University. Railroaded, his forthcoming book set to be released from Norton May 31, 2011, explores the impact of 19th century American railroads on the settlement of the West.

Acknowledgements

Glenn Willumson, for his enthusiasm and support in intially getting this project off the ground.

Sanaz Motahari-Asl and Nicole Coleman, Stanford Humanities Center, for their invaluable help building this website and coding the GoogleEarth API.

Special thanks to Margaret Kimball, former University Archivist and Christy Smith from Special Collections, Stanford University.

Questions and Comments?

Jesse White is still in the process of taking repeat photos of Alfred Hart's collection. The site is currently incomplete, but will be updated regularly on the first of the month with new photo pairs as they come in. Please check back periodically for more of Hart' Photo repeats.

We have tried to arrange Afred Hart's photographs in a logical and thorough manner and to offer any visitors relevant and useful information about the photographs and the photographer. If our explanations are in any place unclear or incorrect, we would very much appreciate it if you would take the time to write us an e-mail at spatialhistory@gmail.com. If you have any other information to offer or any colorful tidbits that might bring a picture and a time to life, please e-mail us that information as well.

If you are interested in downoading any of the original Alfred Hart Photos or any of Jesse White's repeat photography, please e-mail spatialhistory@gmail.com for more information. There are also several sites online with good collections of Hart's photographs.